Elly De La Cruz put on a shot in Los Angeles on Tuesday night but it wasn’t quite enough as the Cincinnati Reds fell just short against Tarik Skubal and the Dodgers. The 3-2 win for Los Angeles gave them victories in the first two games and earned them series win with one game remaining.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (69-76) | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers (88-57) | 3 | 7 | 1 |
| W: Skubal (9-7) L: Lodolo (3-4) SV: Scott (22) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
Los Angeles grabbed an early lead when Will Smith hit a solo home run in the bottom of the 1st. Nick Lodolo got himself into trouble in the next inning as he loaded the bases thanks to two walks and a single. The lefty then hit Tommy Edman to bring in a run and make it 2-0.
Cincinnati would get to Tarik Skubal in the next inning. Dane Myers kept the inning alive with a 2-out single on the 7th pitch of his at-bat. Elly De La Cruz then hit a 444-foot home run – the longest in Dodger Stadium this season – to tie the game up. Those two Reds combined for a big play in the bottom of the inning, too, as Myers made a diving attempt on a liner into shallow center and came up empty and had the ball roll to the wall. Teoscar Hernandez raced around the bases and JJ Bleday got to the ball in center and fired it towards the infield where De La Cruz was 75 feet into the outfield grass and took the relay and sent a laser at 105.3 MPH to Jose Trevino at the plate to easily get Hernandez who was trying for the inside-the-park home run.
The Dodgers would take the lead in the bottom of the 5th inning when control was an issue for Lodolo once again. The lefty walked Mookie Betts with a one out and then hit Will Smith. Teoscar Hernandez then singled in a run to make it 3-2. That ended the day for Lodolo as the Reds went to Julian Garcia and he got out of the inning with a groundout.
Cincinnati would mount a threat in the top of the 8th inning, still trailing by a run. Elly De La Cruz doubled to the wall in left-center with two outs. That brought Sal Stewart to the plate but he would strike out looking for the third out and strand the tying run.
After Graham Ashcraft threw a shutout 8th inning the Reds had one more chance to keep the game going in the top of the 9th. Tyler Stephenson led off the inning with a walk and he was then replaced by pinch runner Carlos Jorge. With one out and JJ Bleday at the plate, Jorge stole second to get himself into scoring position. That’s where he remained as a strikeout and groundout ended the game.
Key Moment of the Game
Teoscar Hernandez driving in the go-ahead run in the 5th inning that gave the Dodgers the lead for good.
Notes Worth Noting
Elly De La Cruz has had six straight multi-hit games and he’s had multiple hits in nine of his last 12 games. He’s homered in four straight games.Since August 22nd De La Cruz has played in 16 games and had hits in 15 of those games. The only game in which he went hitless he walked twice. During those 16 games he’s hit .455/.507/.788 with 12 extra-base hits.
De La Cruz has 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases. It’s the second time in his career he’s gone 25/25, also doing so in 2024 when he went 25/67. The home run he hit against Tarik Skubal was not just the furthest hit in Dodger Stadium in 2026, it’s the furthest against Skubal in over a year.
The lineup not named Elly De La Cruz went 3-27 on the night. All three of those hits were singles.
Carlos Jorge’s stolen base in the 9th inning was the first of his MLB career. He had 187 of them in the minor leagues in 491 games.
Julian Garcia gave up five total runs in back-to-back outings in late August. In the four games since then he’s allowed one hit while throwing 5.0 shutout innings. His ERA after this game had dropped back down to 3.05 through his 41.1 innings this season with Cincinnati.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs Los Angeles Dodgers
Wednesday September 9th, 10:10pm ET
Rhett Lowder (6-9, 5.43 ERA) vs Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-8, 2.67 ERA)
The crowd mildly booed him when he did that little hip shake around third after that massive HR blast off Skubal. But it was almost kind of in admiration, and between the gasping. Then he unloaded that cannon to homeplate nailing Hernandez by a mile. Another round of gasping from the fans. Then as an after thought, he slammed that double off their speedballing reliever. Dodgers fans counting the days until they sign him away from the Reds.
The catch by Trevino from De La Cruz also deserves a shout out. After watching the replay, you can see the ball hit just a few inches short of his catcher’s mitt. That kind of play is why it is so much fun to watch baseball even when your team is not going to the World Series.
Don’t know how many folks were up to see it, but the short-range rocket EDLC had to deliver to get a force out at home plate Monday night nearly ripped through the webbing on Stephenson’s mitt. In the process, it almost pulled the mitt off his hand and left him literally staggering.
just wondering if there are any dodger fans out there scanning redleg nation?
what are your thoughts about the state of mlb? Your team has had tremendous succes since the turn of the century both in the regular season and post season but for you older fans are you enjoying the game as much anymore?
I am not talking about salary caps and floors and all that I am just talking about the pace of the game, the lack of much offense, all the strikeouts, in general just lack of action.
I find myself not enjoying baseball as much as I used too but i wonder is it because the reds have been so bad for so long that i have become jaded or is it the state and direction of the game itself?
I know as you get older you don’t have the sense of excitement for things that you had in your youth but i still seem to enjoy other sports just as much now as i did when i was younger ( college basketball is a great example). but that maybe because the teams i follow have had more success than the reds .
Rednat, you make some good points. In response to your last paragraph, as a ‘baseball guy’ since around the mid-1940’s, I’m accustomed to the usual average performance of most Reds teams with the exceptions of 1939/40 and the great BRM Era of the 1970’s plus the 1990 championship. As the years add up, my passion for Red’s baseball is less, but I enjoy sports, among other things, and look forward to the Red’s offseason and spring training.
Rednat, I am a long time Dodger fan interested in how the Reds media writes about their team. Today is the very first day I was scanning redleg nation. I enjoy very much watching the Dodgers try to win every year. But the fans that think they win because they spend a lot of money are not seeing the real reason why they win. I think that the Dodgers are great for baseball because they drive massive national interest, field a consistently excellent team, and invest heavily in elite player development. The Dodgers want to win bad every year this is why every person who works for the team is constantly trying to help develop their players. This reflects on the rest of the league. Their are winning teams like the Brewers, Rays that are investing in player development including the draft and their are teams like the Reds and Angels that are not doing that. I would enjoy the game more if more teams owner’s tried to field competitive teams and spend the money they receive. Revenue-sharing recipient teams and the player benefit/industry programs receive the money collected from MLB’s Competitive Balance Tax. Many of these teams owners pocket the funds and do not spend on players or player development. I think there would be more offense and more action if all the teams were actually trying to win. I believe that if you were a Brewers or Guardians fan you would be enjoying baseball a lot more.
btw, I read a fake news store on the Big Red Blog site this morning titled, ”Dodgers fans lobbying for Elly De La Cruz trade don’t understand Reds’ reality.” I can assure Reds fans that the Dodger fans admire De La Cruz but are not lobbying for the Dodgers to sign him. The Dodgers short stop Mookie Betts is signed for SIX more seasons. He is not going anywhere. He is the captain of the team. Reds fans please do not worry that the Dodgers will try to sign De La Cruz. They are happy with Mookie.
Mookie Betts is going to be 37-years-old by the time Elly De La Cruz is going to be a free agent. Chances are very small that Betts is still playing shortstop by then.
I really appreciate the response. Interesting take. Thank you
Reds could be next MLB team sold, per USA TODAY’s Nightengale…
USA TODAY’s Bob Nightengale wrote that following recent sales of the Los Angeles Angels and San Diego Padres, the Cincinnati Reds could be next.
“Rival owners predict that the Cincinnati Reds could be the next MLB team sold,” Nightengale wrote Sept. 8. “Certainly, Bob Castellini will make a cool profit if he does put them on the block, purchasing the franchise for $270 million in 2006. It’s now worth about $1.6 billion.”
I wonder what this is based on? Was it just a couple of owners just speculating? Was it just one
owner speculating and another owner saying “Yeah, I can see that.” Seems pretty vague to me.
I wonder if the next CBA will have anything to do with it? If the Reds are sold I wonder if Dick Williams will be involved?
If the Reds are sold, I wonder if some new money will be involved or will someone in the current ownership group just swap seats with the Castellinis?
It’s fun to speculate, but it probably won’t amount to much.
Bob Nightengale and Bobby Nightengale are father and son. The father wrote this article. The son covered the Reds for a period until he jumped to cover the Twins in May of 2023, where he still is.
Over the past 2 years or so, the Twins were publicly up for sale but apparently attracted new capital without being sold. This process might have given Nightengale Jr. inside information and sources on the market in general. He might also still have sources with the Reds and around Cincinnati.
Since Jr is a beat writer covering the Twins, and Dad is a “national” writer, it makes sense to me that Jr could have passed pertinent information on to his dad.
Time will tell.
Bill DeWitt sold the Reds for $7 million (not a typo) in mid 1960s.
Sal had a chance to be “clutch” yet makes a out with Elly on 2nd.
We are watching the progression of Elly De La Cruz into superstar level player. He is beyond hot right now and somehow people still suggest he isnt a superstar.
More so they claim Sal Stewart after 1 year is more clutch or better than Elly.
Elly is putting up numbers and if not for being out for 3 weeks would be leading the team in all kinds of categories. Sal is a good baseball player right now. Elly is a superstar baseball player.
Why do you care so much about people’s comments? Just enjoy the guy while he is here. He isnt a superstar yet but he is on that path. Gotta make the easy ones consistently and he doesn’t. He looked awfully comfortable making that throw from CF, he should get used to CF in that ballpark because that will be his home in a couple yrs.
Two things can be truce at once–both players are clutch. If more people showed up with statistics…..
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=delacel01&year=2026&t=b
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/stewasa02.shtml
I’d say leading MLB in RBIs is fairly clutch. Sal’s success does nothing to diminish Elly who’s on a real heater right now. It’s OK to root for both.
I have no idea why you are comparing our best two players and I will admit I have been down on Elly at times this year. Right now I think he is playing as well as any player in baseball. To be considered one of the best if not the best, he just needs to cut down on months like August where he had a .703 ops. and May where he had a .781 ops. Sal on the other hand seems to have run out of gas. His September ops is .531, his best months were July and August with an .816 and .880 ops. If we must compare there is no doubt Elly is the better all around player however I am glad the Reds have them both now they just need to build around them. Hector may be a good start but there is a lot of work to do. Sadly their time with Elly is running out quicker than you might think. In the end I am afraid his time with the Reds may end up being similar to Trout and the Angels.
– Bobby Witt Jr had an OPS of .536 in July.
– Elly is under contract through 2029, which should be an entertaining run for Reds fans — except those who hope he’s traded ASAP for unproven prospects.
The clutch ran deep in the Reds organization yesterday. Reds 0-5. Louisville 2-8. Chattanooga 2-9. Dayton 0-8. Daytona 0-9. That makes a combined 4-39, or .103.
The Redlegs are 0-10 so far in this Dodgers series in the first two games.
I am melting, melting.
Lodolo has a lot of work to do in the offseason. Whether that work turns out to benefit the Reds or some other team is a debate I’d entertain.
The good–compared to his good season in 2025, his velo on all 3 of his pitches is the same, chase rate outside the zone is roughly the same, the arm angle hasn’t changed, strand rate w/ runners on base is the same.
The bad–BABIP up 35 points to 0.311, line drive/hard hit % is up, doesn’t have a positive pitch value on any of his offerings–biggest dropoff is the changeup. Swinging strike %, % of pitches inside the zone, and first pitch strike % is the lowest of his career, % of waste pitches and contact rate on all pitches is highest of his career.
I guess that’s a long winded way of saying his command isn’t there and hitters aren’t biting. Will the front office put their faith in a bounceback in his platform year or should they trade him and take their chances with a Petty/Spiers/Aguiar/free agent?
He is a .500 pitcher with a 4.25 career ERA. Thats what he is and what he probably will be. He is a number 4 on most teams, he could be the number 3 in Cincinnati. If you have something better, see what you can get for Lodolo in the offseason. This team needs offense so bad it’s hard to watch without feeling sorry for them.
Exactly. Plus is availability isn’t there. Misses too many starts. He really seemed early on like he had the pitching acumen to be great. Never has panned out.
Offensively, 31 losses of 5 or more runs really exacerbates just how poor of a team this is at hitting minus Sal and Elly. Hopefully Hector can shine and you get some intermittent flashes from Suarez. Myers has been a pleasant surprise. Just too many Hayes, McLain, Friedl, Bleday who just haven’t lived anywhere near to expectations. Bleday had a stellar May and that’s really just about been it.
Bleday had an August OPS of .745, but yeah, pretty dismal otherwise.
With pitching so dominant, we need to recalibrate what it means to be a ‘good’ hitter. League wide average OPS is .719. Believe it or not the Reds have/had 10 players who took 100 ABs or more and had a higher OPS. Obviously a few wildly underperforming guys really dragged down the team as a whole, and also the fact that much of the team OPS came from slugging, hence the 3 outcome offense that can’t score consistently and strikes out too much. I might not be a stretch to think with a couple additions the 2027 offense could be middle of the pack.
I think that is selling Lodolo short.
This season has actually been his second worst in terms of ERA, WHIP, and ERA+. His only worse season came when he was constantly injured and only pitched 34 innings.
So, by all accounts, this season is an outlier and Lodolo is actually a much, much better pitcher than this.
Lodolo’s best season came all the way back in…. Last year, where he put up a 132 ERA+ while pitching 157 innings. He also has another really, really good season on his resume, and one average season.
Think it would be a mistake to give up on a pitcher who clearly has it in him to be a top of the rotation piece.
Lodolo stopped using his wipeout pitch because blisters. So this season is not an outlier. It is what he’s going to look like moving forward if that slider doesn’t come back.
I would think the clubs decision would have to hinge on how the new curve ball is shaping up. If that pitch proves to be of good quality and at least near to his previous curve which caused the blister issues, I’d suspect the lost command will return making him a viable #2/#3 rotations piece.
Welsh noted that he is currently remaking himself on the fly during the season.
Dealing him now would feel like selling low after his great performance last season. Certainly worth entertaining, but would need to get some pitching depth in return given our current SP depth issues.
Good stuff Sultan, thanks for sharing.
I had the same thoughts Sultan. Lodolo is not without value, but, progress isn’t happening with the Reds. Thus, his greatest value to the Reds might be the return he would bring from a team that believes it has the key to harnessing his raw talent and skills more effectively.
I have no idea why you are comparing our best two players and I will admit I have been down on Elly at times this year. Right now I think he is playing as well as any player in baseball. To be considered one of the best if not the best, he just needs to cut down on months like August where he had a .703 ops. and May where he had a .781 ops. Sal on the other hand seems to have run out of gas. His September ops is .531, his best months were July and August with an .816 and .880 ops. If we must compare there is no doubt Elly is the better all around player however I am glad the Reds have them both now they just need to build around them. Hector may be a good start but there is a lot of work to do. Sadly their time with Elly is running out quicker than you might think. In the end I am afraid his time with the Reds may end up being similar to Trout and the Angels. One last thing Kevin while Sal failed last night there have been times this season where Sal picked up the team after Elly failed but I hate that we, including me, have compared these two so much this year. I think we all need to hope Sal picks it up in order to win the Rookie of the Year to get the Reds that extra draft pick.
Yet even Elly does fail it is pointed out on here numerous times throughout the game or the recap. Yet,I didn’t read a thing about Sal not coming through. Just merely pointing out the hypocrisy of some. I agree with Doug what some of your definitions of superstar are way off base.
Elly could become the Reds closer down the stretch, save five games, and there would still be people saying:
– “He’s being selfish.”
– “Why does he still have the sliding glove in his pocket?”
– “Matt McLain could do better.”
I agree so much with Justin T when it comes to Elly he could be a superstar but he isn’t there yet. He may one day be the best player in baseball he just needs to be a little more consistent and stay injury free. As for Sal he will never be considered one of baseball’s best players but he could have a Tony Perez type of career, which ended up in the Hall of Fame.
Just a reminder that once again Elly De La Cruz is currently the 4th most valuable position player in MLB in 2026 and that the expectations some of you have for him and what a superstar actually is are entirely and completely out of whack with reality.
That play by Elly last night… Nobody else could do it. But, plenty of SSs can make careless errors on routine plays. And that’s why we are impatient/critical of him,
No one is going to ever be perfect and that’s basically what it seems so many of you expect of him. The guy is literally one of the best players in baseball by a widely accepted valuation system and we’ve got people on here arguing, DAILY, that the Reds should trade him, move him to a different position, he’s not a superstar, he needs to get better and more consistent, etc. Yeah, he’s not the best player in the game. But the number of guys better than him right now can be counted on your fingers on your left hand. And still, every single day, I wake up and read comments about how he’s not good enough.
Perfect is the enemy of good, or something like it.
Similar to Joey Votto, who seemed to take a beating whenever he wasn’t perfect. If the best player isn’t winning World Series it is their vault somehow.
MAV: “isn’t there yet” and “will never be considered one of the best” … words spoken with so much authority and such little to support it.
Elly has to be perfect for the Reds to compete. It is an unreasonable expectation.
The problem is that apparently it’s unreasonable to put a team of competent hitters around him.
We are witnessing history from EDLC but it doesn’t matter, because even with him, the Reds aren’t good enough. It’s Joey Votto all over again.
I would love to see YOU GUYS out there playing Shortstop in the Majors every night, day in, day out. Or anybody you happen to know.
It is probably the hardest position to play (or catcher), and even “routine” looking plays are not routine. Tricky hops, spin on the ball, things you can’t see from the stands, but sure….Elly is dogging it some nights.
IT . ALL. MAKES. ME. SO. TIRED.
What’s tired is this comment. I teach. I get criticized. It’s a hard job. I’d like to see my critics come do it. Criticism comes with the territory.
EDLC is a pro baseball player and it’s perfectly reasonable to criticize his performance, especially when the team isn’t winning.
the criticism may be sometimes unreasonable, but all i can think of is “Leave Britney Alone!”
The 105.3 MPH throw makes me think of the time a few years ago when his throw across the infield was clocked at like 107 MPH. They said it was a statcast glitch, but in hindsight I’m not so sure…
The throw was so hard Candelario barely got his glove up to catch it, and even then it almost went through the webbing.
i wouldn’t trade Elly for anyone given his youth and his ceiling which is possibly the moon. to those grumbling about his mistakes on the field, someday you’ll be telling your grandkids, “i witnessed greatness.” like when i talk about Johnny Bench . once in a generation talent comes along and i’m gonna enjoy it!
Elly is tired of playing on a losing small market team and to me is the main reason for his periodic “too casual” play. When he is motivated like against the Dodgers he is one of the best in the game.
I think Elly De La Cruz has probably played his best baseball as a Red the last few weeks. A few errors here in there, but the overall hitting, and that play last night, wow. He’s on the verge of superstardom. Some would say he’s there, different opinions of course on that.
There’s only about 3-5 guys in the game I’d consider on that level. Judge, Ohtani, maybe PCA, Soto? I don’t think I’d include Soto though as I think his Defense and Base Running are considered average to below average.
When you see that throw last night, I think what would he look like as a right fielder, center fielder, making those throws more often? That’d be fun to see. We see his arm at short on display, but you’d really see him unleashing more throws like that often from the outfield.
On that play…pretty unwise risk from Dane Myers. For all the good plays Myers makes, he seems to occasionally make some unwise ones.
Will the Reds go all in to try and build a winner around Elly in 2027-2028? Do they have the resources to do that, free agent money, trade chips?
Ideally, you’d try to surround Elly, Stewart, Burns mainly with more upper tier talent for the next 3 years. The Pirates made a big effort to surround Skenes with more talent this year, and then Skenes has had a bit of a down year, and they’re 72-73, so it didn’t work too well for them so far.
Stepping back, Elly’s play, the seasons of Burns, Stewart are exciting. Yet, the Reds are 69-76, with potentially the Mets about to pass them for a better record. They seem to be a top heavy team/organization talent wise…the future looks uncertain.
We know the current roster is inadequate. Possible losses as Lowe, Stephenson, Burke, and maybe even Singer and Suarez makes the inadequate even worse. The question of the year is how heavy are we going to invest to try to level out the losses of Stephenson, Lowe, Greene, Burke, and Suarez? And how heavy are we going to improve our underachievers at 2B, 3B, and OF? I personally don’t see it as question of budget. The organization traded for and/or drafted and developed many of these underachievers ….Marte, Hayes, Arroyo, McLain, Benson, Lodolo, Petty, Phillips, etc. You don’t keep running them out there year after year do you? No you don’t. It becomes admittance of failures and the decision to put more talent out there. Gosh, you have Elly and Sal as starting pieces. You don’t target 4th place with that as your starting point.
The important thing for this franchise is the admittance that there are issues. While I believe it is Krall’s and his assembly of an inadequate talent level, that isn’t the important thing. The important thing is realizing your top talent level in Elly and Sal, and committing to putting a better than 500 product out there. If that means a more competent GM, so be it. A new Tito so be it. Spending to bring it a better level of talent, so be it. Trading a whole bunch of prospects, so be it. Present case is not working.